


Hushed

by burymeinziam



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Angst, Halloween, Horror, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-04
Updated: 2013-11-04
Packaged: 2017-12-31 10:24:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1030582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burymeinziam/pseuds/burymeinziam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Niall is the reverend’s son, Harry wants to get laid, and the barn is haunted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hushed

“Could you maybe slow down?”

Harry looks over to his right, his eyes landing on the boy sitting so uncomfortably in the passenger’s seat, pressed flat against the window and fixing him with a stare filled to the brim with fear. Harry just shook his head, rolling his eyes at Niall’s alarm because, really, he only had full reign of the truck for the afternoon and it had been complete hell trying to convince his parents to let him borrow it in the first place.

“Don’t be such a baby,” Harry yawned, resting his wrist against the steering wheel and cursing himself for not allowing himself more than four hours of sleep the night before. Planning this entire trip had been a pain in his ass to the point where he was beginning to doubt why he was even bothering with it in the first place. Harry had been pretty sure that everything was going to go his way the night before but now, looking over at Niall, the lines of his plan were beginning to blur a little. Niall’s hair, a color that reminded Harry of the sun just as the cloud’s were starting to obscure it from view just before a rain storm, was sort of mused and sticking up at odd angles around his face, his lips set in a tight line of worry and growing red from the constant gnawing from his teeth. His fingers, attached to slender almost delicate wrists, were tapping steadily against his jean-clad thigh, the noise starting to set Harry’s brain on edge. He halfway wanted to yell at Niall to stop or something, but another glance in his direction told Harry that that was a bad idea, Niall’s wide eyes echoing some thought that he might be contemplating jumping out the window. It wasn’t as if they had much farther to go anyways, the sudden dips in the worn out dirt road serving as some sort of marker for how long they were from getting to the farm.

The sun was harsh and bright, cutting through the smudged glass of the windshield and burning straight into Harry’s tired eyes. Stalks of wheat jutted out from the high banks of the road around them sort of reminding Harry that it was almost harvesting time and fuck if he was going to stick around to help out with all that chaos. His dad had pretty much taught him to reject the entire idea of entering the family business, instead preaching the ideas of going to university and getting a law degree and opening up his own practice in the city. It sounded like a pretty sweet deal when Harry thought about it – living in modern society with a good job and no worries about cows or which vegetables to plant where – so he steered clear of his family’s old farm except for, well, except for times like this.

Harry pulled up into the long driveway, slowly making his way through the winding circle until they were stopped just in front of a huge, faded red barn. He vaguely remembered someone, probably his grandfather, telling him that they used to house the sick cattle in there to keep them away from the coyotes at night. It had been a pretty long time since the barn had been used for anything other than storage, the same story going for most of the abandoned buildings on the property. Instead, Harry’s family focused on the wheat and the corn and all of the other vegetables that grew on the vast acres of land around the property.

Harry can’t even remember the last time someone actually lived on the lot.

“This is the family farm?” Niall asked, surprised by Harry opening the car door and stepping onto the dusty ground.”It’s not very big.”

Harry shrugged. “There’s more land where they grow a whole bunch of stuff.” He coughed, particles of dust and hay already settling into his lungs. “This part doesn’t get used much these days, but it’s nice and quiet.”

Harry watched as Niall’s cheeks flushed a bit at his words, his head ducking to hide the color. Harry smirked at seeing how flustered he’d made him and reached out to grip the boy’s wrist, leading him towards the barn.

“Here, let me show you around.” He tugged Niall through the huge opening to the barn, ducking down a little to avoid some of the bigger cobwebs resting in the corner of the entryway. “This is where my grandad and his parents used to keep the cows and stuff during the night. Now it’s mostly rusted out tractors…”

Niall’s eyes widened a little as he looked around, the deep blue of his eyes reflecting some of the bigger pieces of machinery.

“What happened?” He asked. “I mean… why is it so empty now?”

“I’m not sure if I should tell you,” Harry said, keeping his voice low. “It’s kind of a weird story.”

Niall coughed a little, kicking his feet around in the dust and fixing Harry with a wide-eyed stare. “How weird?” He asked, his voice oozing curiosity and Harry couldn’t help but to smirk a little.

“Well,” he chuckled. “If you really want to know, they say that when my uncle was growing up out here, some really crazy shit went down.”

“Like what?” Niall asked, eyebrows creased as he continued to look back at Harry.

“He was never really, you know, right in the head; always kind of different. My dad told me he used to kill squirrels and stuff for fun when they were growing up. You know what they say about serial killers right? How they kill animals and stuff when their little? It was sort of like that. Anyways, I guess that sort of stuff builds up after a while because it started to get out of hand. One day, my uncle wanders off onto the neighbor’s property and comes back with their thirteen-year-old son. Uncle Todd was a pretty big guy, too, like three hundred pounds easy.”

“Wha- what happened?” Niall asked, his eyes so wide the whites were almost shining in the dim light of the barn.

Harry shrugged his shoulders. “No one really knows. My grandad came out here the next morning and found the kid all torn up. Like… ripped to pieces. There was blood everywhere and no one could find my uncle. They looked all over the barn, inside the house and all the buildings out here and everything. It was like he just vanished or something. Eventually they sent the dogs out into the woods, but they never found him. Nobody knows what happened to him. My dad told me there’s still a warrant out for his arrest since that family never got their answers…”

“Oh my God,” Niall choked, backing up a little towards the door. “It happened in here? Like where we’re standing? Why would he do that to a little boy? Why would you  _bring_  me here?”

“Yeah,” Harry said quietly. “Right here. One time my grandad thought he saw Uncle Todd out near the pastures but he was probably just being paranoid.”

“ _Harry…”_  Niall pressed, the fear even more evident in his voice.

“C’mon, Niall,” Harry sighed. “I thought you’d be able to handle it. I don’t tell a lot of people about my family, you know? You can only imagine how they’d react.”

Harry stared him down for a second, finally not able to hold it in any longer before exploding, laughter echoing off the ancient, molding walls and bouncing back toward them. He had to kneel over a little, clutching his gut in his hands just to hold in the hysterics.

And then Niall was groaning, kicking angrily at the dust beneath his sneakers. “Oh my God, Harry, you’re such an asshole!” He grumbled, turning around and stomping his feet as though he were about to leave. Harry had to laugh a little more at that, reaching out and catching Niall’s wrist.

“I know, I know,” he said, pulling Niall in toward his chest. “But you like me.”

Niall’s eyes turned downward, cheeks fully flaming as Harry took his face into his hands, smoothing the pads of his thumbs over Niall’s neck. He leaned forward and kissed him, Niall’s lips tasting of salt and and the strawberry gum he’d been chewing in car. A huff of hot air escaped Niall’s mouth as Harry tugged him a little closer, their chests bumping together as he ran a hand down the line of Niall’s back causing him to smirk at knowing exactly what he was doing and that no one else had ever done it before. Niall reached forward and kissed Harry again, their mouths making a smacking noise as Harry pulled away a few short seconds later.

“I can’t believe you fell for that,” he said, pulling Niall along with him toward the ladder that led up to the loft. “My brother used to tell me that story when I was little just to scare the shit out of me.”

“I guess it worked,” Niall laughed nervously, following slowly behind.

Harry stepped up to the ladder and started to climb up, looking behind to see Niall still standing on the floor of the barn.

“I’m… I’m not sure about this, Harry,” he spoke, looking up the ladder hesitantly. “It looked sort of up there.”

“Don’t worry,” Harry assured him. “You won’t even notice it after a while. Trust me.”

Niall gasped a little, gripping onto the rungs of the ladder and pulling himself up behind Harry. Harry couldn’t help but to laugh at his eagerness. He would never say so out loud but it was cute as hell and definitely turned him on. This was Niall Horan, the preacher’s son and resident Boy Scout. Harry was pretty sure no one had ever touched him before – even though the whole gay aspect of his personality wasn’t all that difficult to figure out, what with the tight khaki hiking shorts and all. Harry had worked for years just to get to this point with him – years of pointless scout meetings and thousands of youth group meetings pretty much to see that blue eyed baby faced innocence melt away to reveal something that all the girls (and, of course, Harry) were quick to notice. Niall had turned out to be pretty fucking gorgeous and Harry had his eyes set on him since day one.

And now Harry had him pressed against the soft piles of hay coating the floor of the lost, kissing down his neck and onto his prominent collar bone, reaching a hand out to slowly unbutton his shirt while his lips stayed swift at work. He could feel hot pants of breath fan out over his jawline as Niall laid back, heart beat nearly coming alive in Harry’s hands as helped him out of his shirt.

“Just relax,” Harry said, pulling back and taking in Niall’s expression. His lips were slightly swollen, his chest darkening under a full flush as Harry looked him over, blond hair sticking up in a mess of odd angles and all Harry could think was “ _yeah”_ he definitely made the right choice.

Niall started to shake a little as Harry ran his fingers down his arm, slowly dipping them lower to play piano along the contours of his ribcage, tracing along the ridges of each bone, his mouth reaching to capture Niall’s lips all over again. Niall looked up at Harry shyly, blue eyes glinting and hesitant as he reached along the hem of Harry’s cotton shirt, helping to lift it over his shoulders and feeling the skin underneath. Their chests bumped together again and Harry could feel the heat of Niall’s blush – nearly head to toe now – and something about that made him kiss his nose lightly. He reached a hand down to Niall’s belt loops, fingering along the edge until he found where it met the metal zipper and just as he was about to reach down and shuck off the jeans, Harry heard Niall startle a little with this sharp intake of breath and a hand against the skin of Harry’s throat.

“Harry,” He said seriously, a slightly panicked edge sounding in his voice. “Did you hear that?”

“What?” Harry replied. “I didn’t hear anything.”

“You didn’t?” Niall’s eyes widened and Harry could tell that he was serious about hearing something out there when he actually took the time to look at him. “It was like… I don’t know. I just – I heard something.”

“You’re being paranoid,” Harry mumbled against Niall’s jawline, trying to coax him back into what they had started. “You’re probably still spooked from that story I told you.”

Niall’s fingers pushed Harry back insistently, an elbow smacking Harry full on in the face as Niall sat up his hair completely fucked from Harry’s fingers running through it.

“Can you just… Can you check?”

Harry tried not to groan too loudly, letting his head hand down and smack against Niall’s shoulder. God only knew how long it had taken him to get Niall to this point and now he wanted to stop everything all because of some stupid noise that probably wasn’t even there. Harry hadn’t heard anything and he was pretty sure this was just Niall being paranoid, but he stood up anyways and brushed the hay from his limbs figuring he would have to at least go out there before he could could get Niall back where he wanted.

“Fine,” Harry grumbled, stepping carefully over the ladder before making his way down toward the floor. “Don’t move.”

Harry walked through the barn and stepped toward the door, feeling the cool air against his chest and a little surprised to see that the sun had already set almost completely. Had they really been in there for so long?

The ground was cold beneath his feet as Harry walked over to where he had parked the truck, checking the cab as well as the bed of the truck to make sure there weren’t any abnormalities. When he didn’t find anything, Harry figured that the noises – if there were any – were probably coming from the neighbors. The truck was clear, so Harry walked out toward the edge of one of the main fields, straining his neck against the steady breeze in order to see over the stalks. Nothing caught his eye, so he turned back toward the barn, his body already itching to get back to Niall.

As he was approaching the barn, something flashed in the corner of Harry’s eye causing him to whirl around and catch sight of a clump of wheat stalks swaying as if something had moved through them. His heart jumped, chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath and think of what he would do if someone were actually going to jump out and attack him.

But then there was a splotch of white moving against the steady, dull color of the wheat and Harry realized, smacking himself on the forehead for being such an idiot. It was just a stupid cow, probably wandering around in search of it’s flock. Harry snorted a little to himself as he turned to go back inside, deciding that, yeah, Niall was definitely just being paranoid and it was obviously starting to rub off on his psyche.

“Did you see anything?” Niall called out from the loft and Harry silently thanked the stars that Niall hadn’t felt the need to follow him. It probably would have taken another hour to get him all hungry and naked a second time around.

“Nothing at all,” Harry answered, climbing the ladder and hoisting himself back up into the loft. He sat down Next to Niall who quirked an eyebrow at him.

“Are you sure?” He asked again, biting his lip and looking absolutely sinful. “I swear I heard something.”

“No, Niall,” Harry replied, his voice sounding a bit harsher than before. “All I saw was this stupid cow wandering around. Farmers get them mixed up all the time. It’s no big deal.”

Niall sighed, sinking down into a pile of hay and looking up at Harry with eyes full of resignation. Harry smirked and ducked his head down, kissing him lightly in an attempt to get things started again. And when Niall’s fingers sunk into his hair, tugging slightly at the roots as he pulled Harry down against him, he knew it was working. There was still some part of Harry that couldn’t believe that all of this was happening. Niall was a good boy, nobody could have ever imagined him practically squirming beneath a boy like Harry as he moaned into his mouth. It was nearly unthinkable. Harry shifted a little on top of Niall around the same time Niall shifted against the hay, creating an uncomfortable friction between them, jeans scratching and toes curling. He took one of Niall’s hands away from his crotch, holding it above his head and kissing him slowly, a little shocked that he was wanting to move faster than he was really ready for because this was Niall and Harry was the one who had started everything. But then there was some part of Harry who actually liked Niall enough to want to take things on the slower side, draw them out a little so Harry could keep him for as long as possible.

Niall, however, didn’t seem to like Harry’s gentlemanly actions as much as Harry would have thought, his hips remaining insistent against Harry’s trying to force their bodies together as he let out an impatient whine. Everything about this boy screamed virgin, but there he was panting and moving against Harry like he couldn’t get enough and that alone made Harry tear their mouths apart and groan as his head fell against Niall’s shoulder.

“Mmm,” Niall voiced, fingers knotted in Harry’s hair. “Harry….”

He liked the way that sounded – his name dancing over Niall’s lips, all caught up and strangled at the back of his throat and Harry was just about to give him what he wanted when he heard it too.

“Did you hear that?” Niall asked again, only this time Harry nodded his head in reply and motioned for Niall to keep quiet.

It came again, sounding harsh against the silence of the barn. It was almost like something – or someone – was screaming but in a low sort of tone. It was steady and deep against the air.

“What is it?” Niall asked, sitting upright and knocking his forehead against Harry’s. Harry cursed silently under his breath, pushing away from Niall and running a hand over his hair as he tried to listen for the noise again. “It almost sounds like something is  _dying_.”

Harry rolled his eyes at the over-dramatization, but the noise came again and he almost found himself agreeing with Niall. It was some sort of guttural groaning noise and it sounded louder this time; closer.

“Maybe it’s just a cow,” Harry said. “That one out in the field from earlier.” He was trying to ignore the way his heart was hammering against his rib cage. “Sometimes they get freaked out if they see someone on the property.”

For a second, Harry almost believed himself.,

“ _Harry_ ,” Niall whined against his shoulder. “You and I both know that didn’t sound like any noise a cow would make at all.”

“Then you obviously haven’t heard a cow crying out before,” Harry pressed, trying to tug Niall back down to him. He tried on a smile, something cheeky and charming that would hopefully calm Niall’s own. “It can get pretty fucking creepy.”

Niall bit down on his bottom lip, fingers coming together in nervous tangles as his eyes widened even further. He was beginning to remind Harry of some sort of bush baby. Harry reached out for him again, trying to pull him back down and make him forget about that stupid cow in the field who was probably just freaked out about being lost or sick or something.

“Harry, please,” Niall pleaded, holding his arms out as he eyed Harry apologetically. “Can you go check again?”

“Christ…” Harry couldn’t help but to mutter harshly, shoving himself up onto his feet. “Fine. Just know that this is really fucking stupid.”

Harry didn’t even bother with glancing over at Niall before making his way down the ladder, too pissed off that he couldn’t get over his stupid paranoia and be content with kissing Harry in a hay loft. The more Harry thought about it, the more ridiculous the whole idea seemed. Of course it was just some idiot cow and now Harry was going to have to find some way to scare it off and make himself look like an ass in the process.

It was fully dark outside by the time he walking back out from the cover of the barn. Harry cursed silently to himself at the realization that they were going to have to leave soon. Nothing seemed suspicious which lead Harry to the conclusion that the cow must have tired itself out of something and settled down for the night in a clump of tall wheat. But then Harry remembered how scared Niall had been been and decided that he should probably try to do something about it if he was ever going to get his pants off by the time they’d be forced to head home.

Harry’s eyes wandered over to a small shack toward the corner of the largest field where he figured there could be some kind of a shovel or something he could use to make some noise and freak the cow out enough to make it leave. It seemed like a pretty solid plan as Harry walked toward the shack, stepping carefully as to avoid tripping and stumbling around I the dark.

The shack door creaked when he pulled it open, dodging the clumps of dust that fell from the ceiling. It made Harry wonder when someone had last stepped foot inside. It was pretty hard to see in the small, confined space, the strain on Harry’s eyes as he struggled to scan the room for anything resembling a shovel making his head hurt a little. He finally caught sight of one near the back of the room and he crossed it, clamping his fingers around the wooden handle and cursing when he felt the wood slice into his skin.

“Fuck,” Harry grumbled, turning around to walk back toward the fields, hoping it wouldn’t take too long to scare off the cow and get back to Niall. Just as he was about to walk back out of the shed something seemed to slam into the one of the walls causing a loud crunching noise to sound over on Harry’s left. His eyes burned as a cloud of dust flew through the small space. Harry coughed, choking on what felt like his heart but was probably just a lump lodged in the back of his throat.

“This isn’t fucking funny!” Harry choked out, his voice hoarse and thick. He figured it was those neighbor kids his grandfather was always complaining about. “Don’t think I won’t bash your little heads in!”

At that, the noise and all motion came to a stop, an eerie silence taking over the shack to the point where Harry could almost hear his own shallow breathing. He smirked at the realization that he’d probably scared the kids off and reached out to push the door open so he could step back outside.

Harry was about to head back to the barn when he heard it; something sharp and harsh against the previous silence. It was so close it sounded as though it were coming from right behind him. A smell that reminded Harry of rotting garbage filtered into Harry’s nostrils and the scream cut off, filtering out into a sort of groaning noise that raised all the hairs on the back of Harry’s neck and froze the blood in his veins. His knees locked as he fought the urge to run, his fingers gripping the handle of the shovel tight as he swung it out in front of him. His arms flailed a little as he felt it connect with something thick, making a crunching noise and echoing with a sick  _thud_.

All Harry saw was the flash of an old, tattered flannel shirt sleeve coming toward him from it’s previous place on the ground and he cursed lowly to himself since he obviously hadn’t hit the fucker hard enough. He screamed, lungs bursting with the noise and terror rising in his chest.

“Niall!” The words sound strangled, but Harry’s voice is loud and he sort of thinks calling for help is useless because Niall isn’t even here. The thing pushing him toward the ground and making another yell, vomit rising into Harry’s throat as the smell of rot seems to cover every inch of him.

He could feel himself being pressed into the ground and something hot trickling down onto his cheek, eyes squeezed shut against it and Harry’s chest felt as though it were about to explode and then there was the sound of footsteps and short, panicked breaths coming toward him.

“Harry!” He cried out against the silence and it was Niall, voice cracking in horror. “No! Get off of him; God, no!”

Something sharp hit Harry’s temple and everything went white. The last thing he heard was Niall shouting something that sounded sort of like his name and all Harry could think was yeah; it definitely wasn’t a cow and everything was quiet, his ears filling up and shutting up against the dimness of the world around him. His eyes burned against the stickiness dripping onto his face hot pants sounding above him as Harry felt something gripping tight at his throat.

“Harry, no!”

But the moonlight was shining so bright at that very moment, the clouds passing over and creating a bluish glare to everything around him. It was oddly peaceful and, for a moment, everything was hushed. All Harry could hear was the faint brushing of the wheat stalks rubbing together and the wind blowing against his ears as everything faded to black.


End file.
